Way Back When: Courteney Cox

Way back before she was a leading lady on TV with shows like 'Friends' and 'Cougar Town,' Courteney Cox was just trying to pay her bills like the rest of us, which landed her some interesting and obscure roles you probably don't remember -- including one awesome music video and a game-changing TV commercial.

Tampax Commercial

In 1985, the word "period" was never mentioned on television, so commercials for lady's hygiene products were always prancing delicately around the word like it was some sort of disease. But that all changed in this Tampax commercial starring Courteney Cox as a lady getting ready for dance class and she's got a brand new tampon product she wants to share with you. She promises it will make you feel clean and give you a whole new attitude about your period! Revolutionary!

http://youtu.be/DtAQQ_hmPoY

Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" Video

When you have the opportunity to star in a music video with The Boss, you just do it, okay? Cox answered the call in this 1984 video for "Dancing in the Dark," in which she gets up on stage and gives us one of the most memorable -- and repetitive -- dance moves of the 80s. But more importantly, she got to get on stage with Bruce Springsteen and she kept her cool the whole time. We would have died.

'Masters of the Universe'

Remember when Dolph Lundgren played He-Man in the 'Masters of the Universe' live-action movie? Yeah, that was an awesomely bad time. What you might not remember is that Courteney Cox played one of the puny Earth humans trying to help He-Man and his buddies defeat the evil Skeletor. You get a few peeks of Cox in the trailer below, mostly screaming and putting herself in danger like a total dork:

'Misfits of Science'

From 1985 to 1988, Cox starred on the surprisingly enduring TV show 'Misfits of Science' as Gloria Dinallo alongside co-stars Dean Paul Martin, Kevin Peter Hall, and Mark Thomas Miller -- having three names became really popular in the 80s, obviously. Hall would later go on to play the Predator in the film of the same name, while Dean Paul Martin and Mark Thomas Miller mostly faded into obscurity. Cox, on the other hand, went on to become a household name, and you can see how a young, spunky Cox made a lasting impression in these classic opening credits:

'Family Ties'

In the TV show that gave us Michael J. Fox as the lovably conservative Alex P. Keaton, Cox played his love interest -- a psychology major named Lauren Miller. In this clip from her first appearance on the show, Cox gets to play with a chimpanzee. So let's see, she was the first woman to say "period" in a commercial, she danced with Bruce Springsteen, she starred in a 'Masters of the Universe' movie, and she gets to play with a monkey?! Cox won the pre-fame lottery, seriously.